CityView Magazine

faith The Missing Season D By The Rev. Dan Alger id you know there is a season between Halloween and Christmas, and I don���t mean Thanksgiving. I mean Advent. ���What is Advent?��� you ask. Well, it is the season of the church that is the season of preparation and expectation before Christmas. Do you remember that feeling you had when you were a kid and there were presents under the tree and you could not wait until Christmas Day so you could open them? It was like a fire in your stomach, a twisting in your bones, an ache in your soul. Every day was a countdown of expectation. 25, 24, 23, 22...days 'til Christmas. When we get older that anticipation is replaced with the stress of preparation. We are focused on logistics, finances, and time. It is about layaway, grocery store trips, shopping and dreading the obligatory visit to Uncle Jim���s house. Preparing for Christmas is less of an ache in the soul than a pain in the���bunting. If you could take the sense of anticipation and expectation of your youth and the work of preparation from your adulthood, mix in a good deal of holiness, and let the focus be on God rather than consumerism and hollow traditions, you would have Advent. Advent is a time to look backwards at the preparation for the coming of the Christ the first time (stories of folks like Mary and John the Baptist) and to look forward to the return of Christ at some later date (which, if the Mayans are right, means you may not have long to read this column). It is supposed to be a time when we examine our own souls to see our need for a Savior and when we look honestly at the brokenness of the world to increase our longing for Christ to come and finally make all things new. It is a season of hopeful expectation for this new day and a time for the preparation of our own souls as we ache for it to come. Advent can be a tough season, just like waiting for presents, and that is why we���ve neglected it. Our Christmas decorations come out in October. Holiday music starts in November. No one wants to wait. No one wants to experience longing. We want instant gratification. We want hot doughnuts NOW. But waiting is good for us. It makes us appreciate what we get when it comes. It makes us realize how badly we want something and that it is not a passing fad. This world is broken and we need to passionately ache for it���s healing. But our waiting is not a passive thing. Advent is waiting in expectation AND preparation. We need to do all that we can now to bring a glimpse of the wholeness and beauty that will be a reality for eternity when Christ returns. That is why we give, we serve, we heal, we feed ��� to give a sample of what the Kingdom of Christ will be like when all things are made new and, in turn, to bring others to long for it as well. We are like presents under the tree. This Advent season, as difficult as it, let���s not rush to Christmas. Let���s experience this holy longing and turn it into holy action���and then we can party for a couple weeks after Christmas Day. CV 16 | December ��� 2012 Join Us in Celebration of the Birth of Jesus Christ Monday December 24th 4:00 pm Live Nativity 5:00 pm Family Candlelight Christmas Eve Service 7:00 pm 2nd Mile Christmas Eve Service 10:00 pm Candlelight Christmas Eve Service Highland Presbyterian Church 111 Highland Avenue 910-485-2147

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